The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana was launched as the fl agship farm insurance scheme in 2016. In Maharashtra, the coverage under the scheme shows a skew, with the drought-prone districts in Marathwada and Vidarbha showing higher coverage under insurance as compared to the districts in Konkan.
Extreme events as floods, droughts and heat waves ensue from climate change. There has been an increase in the frequency and intensity of such events in the past two decades. Some of the recent events have caused substantial damage to agricultural crops and loss to human lives. The recurrence of such events is a threat to social welfare, economy and humanity as a whole. Adaptation to climate change is the key and the way forward. It is observed that agriculture has historically adapted to shocks and extreme events. Agricultural adaptation and resiliency to extreme events over the last three and a half decades is gauged using secondary data.
The farming systems followed by farmers in Asia, Africa and Latin America have the potential to deal with the problems thrown up by climate change. This article examines the changing drought ecosystems of poor farmers and also points out that the present paradigm of agricultural development and what it means for small farmers needs to be critically evaluated.
Although the article “Problematic Uses and Practices of Farm Ponds in Maharashtra” (EPW, 21 January 2017) by Eshwer Kale rightfully highlights pertinent issues regarding the policy of promoting farm ponds and the manner in which farmers are using these structures; the solutions espoused by the author and the Maharashtra government are devoid of expertise regarding technicalities related to terrain, geography and water-pumping technologies.
Although the construction of farm ponds is portrayed as a miracle strategy by the state and central government as well as popular media, the manner of its implementation and practice in arid and semi-arid regions of Maharashtra is a cause for worry. Farmers extract a huge amount of groundwater to store in large-sized farm ponds. The need of the hour is to appropriately regulate farm pond practices in the state.
Atul Deulgaonkar and Anjali Joshi have described the drought exp- erienced in Marathwada in their article “Agriculture Is Injurious to Health” (EPW, 7 May 2016).
With drought affecting large parts of the country, there are question marks on an energy policy that stresses thermal power plants. The vagaries of climate change will make such plants even more inept.
Farmers in India could be forgiven for assuming that bureaucrats, political parties and their representatives want them to quit agriculture. In fact, without actually announcing that agriculture in any form is injurious to health and only death can end the agony of the disease, these sections do their best to communicate this message subtly.
